State v. Simmons
| Decision Date | 25 January 1966 |
| Citation | 153 Conn. 351,216 A.2d 632 |
| Court | Connecticut Supreme Court |
| Parties | STATE of Connecticut v. Anastasia SIMMONS. |
Thomas P. Byrne, Hartford, for appellant (defendant).
Jack Rubin, Asst. Atty. Gen., With whom on the brief, was Harold M. Mulvey, Atty. Gen., for appellee (state).
Before KING, C. J., and MURPHY, ALCORN, SHANNON and HOUSE, JJ.
This is an appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Superior Court appointing a state referee to appraise the damages sustained by the defendant as a result of the state's taking her property for the expansion and improvement of Bradley Field, an airport. The petition for the determination of compensation for the taking of the property was brought in the name of the state by the aeronautics commission pursuant to the authority vested in it by § 15-79 of the General Statutes. The order of reference was a final judgment, from which an appeal may be taken. State v. Fahey, 146 Conn. 55, 58, 147 A.2d 476, 75 A.L.R.2d 1002.
The Fahey case also involved a taking of property by the state for expansion of the same airport. In a later opinion discussing other aspects of that action; State v. Fahey, 147 Conn. 13, 156 A.2d 463; we had occasion to comment on the issues involved in such a proceeding and we said (p. 17, 156 A.2d p. 465):
The parties to the present proceeding formulated the issues strictly in accordance with the quoted language. The amended complaint expressly alleged that, pursuant to General Statutes § 15-79, the commission had determined that the property in question 'is in the opinion of said Aeronautics Commission found to be necessary for the expansion and improvement of Bradley Field' and that the commission and the defendant were unable to agree on a purchase price. Properly by way of special defense the defendant pleaded that the decision of the commission was 'unreasonable, was made in bad faith, and is an abuse of the power conferred upon it.' The next fourteen subparagraphs of the special defense set out allegations in support of the assertion that the commission's decision was unreasonable, made in bad faith and in abuse of its power. Five of these subparagraphs allege the existence of conditions on the commission's own property and on premises in as close proximity to the airport as the defendant's which are more hazardous to aviation than those which the commission claims justify its taking of the fee in the defendant's more distant property. Accordingly, the parties were at issue on the express allegation by the defendant that, for the reasons alleged, the commission had acted unreasonably, in bad faith and in abuse of its powers.
During the course of the trial, and in support of her allegations of unreasonableness, bad faith and abuse of power, the defendant introduced, and had marked as an exhibit, ten photographs of her land and of other land in the immediate vicinity. When the defendant then sought for the record, and in support of her allegations, to have a witness identify the objects shown in the photographs, the court suo motu intervened to exclude the inquiry. 1
This ruling was clearly erroneous, and the defendant has properly assigned it as error. One of...
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...Co., 145 Conn. 243, 252, 140 A.2d 874, 880; see Molino v. Board of Public Safety, 154 Conn. 368, 375, 225 A.2d 805; State v. Simmons, 153 Conn. 351, 353, 216 A.2d 632; Wilber v. Walsh, 147 Conn. 317, 320, 160 A.2d 755; Rockville v. Public Utilities Commission, 146 Conn. 1, 5, 146 A.2d 916. ......
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Simmons v. State
...to contest the taking of his land by filing a proper pleading to the condemnation petition, as under such cases as State v. Simmons, 153 Conn. 351, 353, 216 A.2d 632, State v. Fahey, 146 Conn. 55, 58, 147 A.2d 476; s.c., 147 Conn. 13, 17, 156 A.2d 463; Bridgeport Hydraulic Co. v. Rempsen, 1......
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...proper pleadings to the condemnation petitions, the claims of the plaintiffs could properly be presented and decided. State v. Simmons, 153 Conn. 351, 353, 216 A.2d 632; State v. Fahey, 146 Conn. 55, 58, 147 A.2d 476, 75 A.L.R.2d 1002; Id., 147 Conn. 13, 17, 156 A.2d 463; Bridgeport Hydraul......
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